De Conjugio (On Marriage) · 17 of 25

Conjugial Love Causes a Man to Be Love

71.CONJUGIAL LOVE CAUSES A MAN TO BE LOVE. Man was created to be love and thence wisdom, since the Lord is Divine love and Divine wisdom, and it is from creation that a man is the image and likeness of the Lord (Gen. 1:26, 27). And this cannot be without genuine conjugial love. From that everything of man can be turned into love, for in marriage it is lawful for each to love even the body from the heart, and thus to dispose the soul and all things thence to the form of love, which otherwise is not possible. The inmost and outermost there make one, and induce that form, and that form is a form of heaven.